Exercise 1.

You and your friends want to tour the southwest by car. You will visit the nine states below, with the following rather odd rule: you must cross each border between neighboring states exactly once (so, for example, you must cross the Colorado-Utah border exactly once). Can you do it? If so, does it matter where you start your road trip? What fact about graph theory solves this problem?

A map of the United States, with Southwest states highlighted.
Solution.
in-context